god damnit!

[danosaur]

Re: god damnit!

Keep an eye on the beyond classifieds.. tires come up there pretty regularly. Also, I believe almost any quattro vehicle as a 2-3% allowable difference in rolling diameters. Many b5 and b6 guys run staggered wheels, just make sure the difference between the tires is within reason.

[The_Jerbel]

Re: god damnit!

The only thing to keep in mind is that the greater the difference between rolling diameters of your wheels, the greater the work load and wear you're putting on your differentials.

[T-Dubbs]

Re: god damnit!

my rear are like 90% tred...

[J-hop]

Re: god damnit!

I agree with stefan on this one, replace them all, did the shop tell you the rears were 90% or are you just guessing like most people do??

I personally view replacing two at a time to be kinda sloppy. It's like having an infamous ignition coil fail on your mk4, and then only replacing that one , then a few months down the road you run into the same problem. Rubber degrades over time so chances are the two pairs of tires are going to behave slightly differently. Plus if your rears truly are 90% you could sell them on beyond.

[Kor]

Re: god damnit!

i got sumitomo hrtz III's and they are great for my driving style

"Grandma" style?

[PRY4SNO]

Re: god damnit!

"Grandma" style?

Hahaha

The only reason those pos tyres would ever make it onto a car of mine is to effect an immediate sale.

[stefan]

Re: god damnit!

Hahaha

The only reason those pos tyres would ever make it onto a car of mine is to effect an immediate sale.

i ran sumitomos for a while. I never pushed them that hard though. The handling and wear was pretty good really, but I found them super noisy. My knobby winters were quieter.

[vee_dubbin]

Re: god damnit!

my rear are like 90% tred...

Dealt with this senerio a few times when I worked at Audi. You can only replace two of the four tires if there is a maximum of 2mm difference in tread depth from new to the ones on the rear. If its greater, then you will run the risk of driveline (diff) damage.

[R_Ethug]

Re: god damnit!

damn! from a few mm of distance.. thats almost like saying if your rears were like 20psi and fronts 40psi you could do that then no?


kris i only drive like a grandma 95% of the time lol my sumis work fine for me

[96vwVR6]

Re: god damnit!

the tire shop is just covering its a$$, cuz if anything by chance actually happens to the drivetrain 99% of people in the world we live in would go after the tire shop for only installing 2 tires.

[Parts Erik]

Re: god damnit!

Sorry to chime in late on this.

We sent off a few emails about this to get something oficial from Audi. We got back some vague answers from Audi but what we can figure from thier answers is that there is an allowable difference front to rear of about 8mm, the big issues are the side to side which is closer to 2mm.

So replacing in pairs is pretty much a must. The biggest thing they said that could lead to problems is running different brands and tread patterns side to side and front to back.
So make sure all 4 tires are the same even if 2 are new and 2 are slightly used.

I don't blame any tire shop for trying to get you into a full set instead of just doing 2 tires cause we do it too, not just for the bigger sale but for the piece of mind that you aren't going to hurt the customers car. Nobody wants to deal with that messy can of worms on the big what if.

The condition of the driveline is the real issue when doing something like this and we really can't tell what kind of life the car has led and what the condition of the trasmission and differentials are in to know, if running any sort of considerable difference in tire diameters may cause damage down the road.

That's the long answer to try to cover my butt.

The short answer is... Can you get away with 2 tires - Yes, sometimes.


Erik

[danosaur]

Re: god damnit!

Not saying any of the above are wrong.. just adding. There is guys with b5 a4 quattros that have been running staggered sizes on their cars for a significant amount of time without any diff problems. As I said before further up, it is generally accepted to have less than 5% difference between rolling diameters (keep it at maybe 3% or below to be safe) which means.. pick your tires carefully.

http://audizine.com/forum/showthread...ed-wheel-setup

Above link should answer your questions.

[tirebob]

Re: god damnit!

Audi's are really finnicky with tire size replacement I find... Talking about staggering, I have some guys that never have an issue, but in the same breath I have other guys with the same cars, same tire setup's etc that have nothing but issues such as vibrations that come and go that can never be solved. The second the car swithes to the same size, problem gone. I am talking the exact same sizes, offsets and models of car... For some reason some respond well and others badly. Maybe it has to do with each vehicles individual tolerances and how precise they are in respects to the drive line etc, but it is something that I have never been able to cure. Some people have reported issues of a subtle "growling" type sound (similar to a bum wheel bearing sound) from the drive line that goes away when the same size all around gets put back on...

Is it wrecking the drive line with the stagger? I can't say for sure but I wouldn't think the drive train is just going to fall out or anything like that. Over the course of a period of time though, it could maybe cause some premature wear in the areas affected...

[The_Jerbel]

Re: god damnit!

The biggest thing they said that could lead to problems is running different brands and tread patterns side to side and front to back.
So make sure all 4 tires are the same even if 2 are new and 2 are slightly used.

Definitely

[turbomeyers]

Re: god damnit!

front to back never had an issue with either haldex or torsion diffs . i say buy two fronts but dont cheap out on them and defiantly do not but bfg ta . get a invo or a nt555 . and then in spring get the rears